In Microsoft Excel 2007 this has become even easier using the following steps:1) Copy the column of codes to a new worksheet2) Click the tab Data3) Select the column with duplicate identifiers4) In the Tab click the option "Remove Duplicates"5) Click the button OK

Screenshot:

If you use excel a lot for gathering and analysing data it could be a good idea to check ou the Youtube channel on Excel. This and many other Excel tips, functions etc. are explained and demonstrated there in over 1000 short movies:

12:18 AM - 28 June 2011

WorldScope company records now cover annual reports data for (currently) 69380 companies. This includes 44533 active and 24847 inactive companies. This update in 2011 is the biggest update in years: 5239 companies were added. WorldScope company records are available through Datastream and LexisNexis.

Today I have updated the WorldScope country coverage file and it now includes the latest update as it was posted in the second Thomson Reuters Infostream quarterly publication of 2011. several new countries have been added and a lot of new companies are now covered.

05:33 PM - 5 June 2011

The website "Kruispuntbank van Ondernemingen" (KBO) offers access to a database maintained by the organisation FPS Economy (/FDO Economie = Federal Public Service Economy/Federale Overheidsdienst Economie). The KBO database/Register contains the basic data of the Belgian companies and their locations. The information on the companies is compiled from databases of different Belgian government agencies. Part of the data in the database is freely available to the general public.

Every business/organisation which is registered in the KBO database gets a company number = Ondernemingsnummer. Companies are required by law to use this number. This number is a unique number that from then on applies to a natural person or legal entity. More information on this number is available (In Dutch or French) at the FOD website. Each Belgian company number consists of 10 numbers starting with either a 0 or 1. Each registered business location also gets a separate location number of 10 digits and these start with a number from the range 2 - 8.

The KBO Database search screen only has two language options: Dutch and French. You will need to be able to read one of these languages to be able to use the KBO database. Three main search screens allow you to search on: - Company name/details- Business location- Address details.

Search result example:

When you click through on the Company number you can find even more data.

At the bottom of this screen there is a section that lists available external links. It is often possible to find links here to official documents like Annual accounts and annual reports. The links to the reports are provided by the National Bank of Belgium.

07:12 PM - 27 May 2011

In a previous post I showed how Microsoft Access could be used to remove duplicates from a large dataset. These duplicate codes can interfere if you need to use this list from the dataset to search for more data on the same companies and do not want to download superfluous data. Personally I prefer Microsoft Access to do things like this, because it is easier to use, combine data, and even deduplicate or combine datasets (in my view).

Excel has the IF function which allows you to do this. In a previous post I showed the IF function. To find the duplicate codes you can use the IF function as follows:

=IF(A1=A2;A1;0)

Explanation: IF the content of cell A1 matches that of cell A2, show A1 or else show the number zero. NB: In the Dutch language version of Excel the IF function is called ALS.

Below is a movie which shows how to filter for duplicate company identification codes and also use the IF function to filter out unlisted companies. In combination with the Auto filter function you get a good list that can be used to search for more data.

06:25 PM - 14 May 2011

A short while ago I was asked the question if there was a source to find out for a number of years which days were sunnier than other days and if there was a correlation with (the amount of) stocks traded at the Dutch stock exchange Amsterdam EuroNext. I could find the data that was needed at the website of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (part of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment).

The website has a separate section that presents monthly overviews starting with October 1998. Each monthly overview has three section on: Rain, Sun and Temperature. The Sun graph list the average daily number of Sun hours on a daily basis for that month. Below you see an example of a sun graph. Blue bar: average maximum number of sun hours, Yellow bar: average number of sun hours measured.

It is also possible to get the actual data from the weatherstations for this period. This option is available at the website Climatology section "Daily weather data for the Netherlands -download". After downloading the data for all the weatherstations you can calculate the average daily number of sun hours and compare it with the calculated average maximum amount of sun hours for each day. The download option is available at: Home > climatology > daily data > selection.